Packaged solid fuel



July 16, 1957 J. SHENKER 2,799,563

PACKAGED SOLID FUEL Filed April 25, '1955 INVENTOR z/ossm/ 57/ 5/? BYATTORN EY United States Patent 2,799,563 PACKAGED SOLID FUEL JosephShenker, Great Neck, N. Y. Application April 25, 1955, Serial No.503,417 1 Claim. (Cl. 44-40) The present invention relates generally toimprovements in fuel material and in particular it relates to animproved fuel in packaged form.

In recent years the domestic cooking, broiling and barbecuing of foodover live charcoal and similar fires has become quite popular. The fireis usually prepared with charcoal in lump or briquette form and startedwith a suitable kindler or primer such as paper, dry wood, highly porouscellulosic material or other relatively easily and rapidly combustiblematerial. The charcoal fire is made either outdoors in an outdoor grillor barbecue pit, or indoors in a fireplace or indoor grill device. Inany case the charcoal lumps or briquettes and the kindling material ordeposited and arranged in the fire area or receptacle in an arrangementfacilitating the igniting of the charcoal and the cooking, broiling orbarbecuing of the food. At its best, therefore, the preparation andtending of a charcoal fire, particularly indoors, is an awkward andmessy job. A principal drawback is the extreme difiiculty orimpossibility of preventing the deposition of the charcoal dust on theuser, his clothes, and about the surrounding area. This deposition isnot only effected by direct contact with the charcoal fuel but as aresult of the charcoal dust which leaves the lumps or briquettes andremains in suspension in the air for a considerable length of time andnot only deposits on the surrounding objects but is breathed andinhaled.

It is thus a principal object of the present invention to provide animproved combustible material.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved solidfuel characterized by its ease, neatness and cleanliness in handling.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improvedpackaged charcoal characterized in the simplicity and cleanliness in itsuse.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improvedpackaged charcoal which may be cleanly and simply dispensed and may beeasily ignited.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a packagedprimed charcoal fuel characterized by its cleanliness and ease of use.

The above and other objects of the present invention will becomeapparent from a reading of the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a fuel unit embodying the presentinvention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 in Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a package of the fuel units illustrated in Figure 1.

The present invention, in a broad sense, contemplates the provision ofan improved packaged solid fuel including a closed outer receptaclecontaining a plurality of packaged fuel units, each of said fuel unitscomprising a closed envelope formed of a relatively rapid combustibleimperforate material and a fuel charge of a charcoal containingsubstance contained in each of said envelopes, said envelopes inhibitingthe release of charcoal dust from said fuel charges to permit the clean,individual handling thereof, and promoting the ignition of said fuelcharge. When the term relatively rapid combustible im-' perforatematerial is used herein, it refers to a material having the combustioncharacteristics of dry paper or iatented July 16, 1957 ICC cellophane.In addition, the term an ignition primer" refers to a mass of materialhaving the ignition properties of paper, dry light wood, porouscellulose material or the like.

Referring now to the drawing which illustrates a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention, the numeral 10 generally designates an envelopeformed of an inflammable or rapidly combustible imperforate webbing orsheet material such as paper, cellophane or the like. The envelope 10 isillustrated as being of rectangular configuration and formed of a tubeor folded sheet of cellophane which is heat-sealed along its upper andlower edges as at 12 and 14 respectively in a conventional manner tocompletely close the envelope. Located within each of the envelopes 10is a charge of carbonaceous, preferably charcoal-containing fuel, in thepresent embodiment such charge consisting of a single charcoal briquette16 of well-known form. Also contained in each of the envelopes 10 is aquantity of kindling or priming material 18 which may be paper, drylight wood, porous cellulosic material or any other well-known andsuitable kindling or priming material. Each of the envelopes 10containing the charcoal briquette 16 and the priming material 18 definesa fuel unit 20.

In order to facilitate the handling, dispensing, transportation and useof the fuel units 20, a plurality of such units are packaged in areceptacle 22 in the form of a bag which is closed along its top 24 inthe usual manner. The bag 22 is formed of any suitable material and ispreferably of an inflammable nature such as cellophane, paper, or thelike.

In use the entire receptacle 22 of fuel units 20 may be placed in thefire area of a grill, barbecue, fireplace or the like and the bag 22merely ignited. As a result of the combustible nature of the bag 22 andthe envelopes 10 and by reason of the presence of the priming material18, the entire package of fuel units is ignited and the fire maintainedby the priming material 18 for a time sufficient to ignite the charcoalbriquettes 16. It is thus apparent that the building of a charcoal firewith the improved device is an extremely simple matter. Furthermore, ifit is desired to add fuel to the fire a bag 22 can be opened and therequired number of fuel units removed from the bag and added to the firewithout any danger of staining by or breathing of charcoal dust. Also,if a fire be desired of a smaller size than provided by use of theentire receptacle 22, the desired number of fuel units 20 may be removedfrom the receptacle 22 and suitably arranged and then ignited.

While there has been described and illustrated a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention, it is apparent that numerous alterations andomissions may be made without departing from the spirit thereof.

I claim:

An improved packaged solid fuel including an outer receptacle formed ofa material selected from the class consisting of paper and cellophaneand containing a plurality of individually packaged fuel units, each ofsaid individually packaged fuel units comprising a closed bag formed ofa material selected from the class consisting of paper and cellophane, afuel charge of a charcoal-containing substance disposed in each of saidbags and a. cellulosic ignition primer disposed in each of said bags,said bags inhibiting the release of charcoal dust from said fuel chargesto permit the clean, individual handling thereof and promoting theignition of said fuel charge.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

